Chapter 523 Emily's breakthrough
After saying this, he nodded at the four-star elf, "Thank you for coming to our rescue, but we can't stay here any longer because more demons are sure to arrive here. Take care and call us if you need help. Also, message others to not to act rashly because the demons might have already noticed our presence. If not, they will notice it soon."
Saying this, he flapped his almost illusionary wings, disappearing and appearing in front of Emily and others.
He looked at Emily, standing there with her eyes closed, a faint layer of pure mana circling around her, and frowned.
Seeing this, Rey spoke up, "She ate a spirit fruit, wanting to breakthrough so she would be more helpful."
Hearing this, a warm smile appeared on Max's face. Gently lifting her in princess carry, careful to not break her concertation, he glanced at Ellie and her mother before turning to Rey, "Take them with you and follow me."
When he picked her up, Emily's eyes snapped open briefly before closing again, which went undetected from Max.
Whoosh!
Finish speaking, Max ran toward the town's outer area. He had almost completely exhausted his mana and couldn't even keep the [Pheonix Wings] active, let alone cast them from scratch again or fight. So, he didn't want to face any demon until he recovered completely. Also, there was Emily, who would take some time before completely digesting the spirit fruit.
Glancing down at her, he sighed, 'Such a stupid girl. What did she plan to do if someone had attacked her? Forcibly stop digesting the fruit's energy and severely injure herself?'
His guess couldn't be more true because it was exactly what she was prepared to do. Fortunately, that didn't come to pass.
Rey looked at Ellie and her mother, who looked at him nervously, and then grabbed them in each hand before rushing after him.
The four-star elf snorted, clearly displeased, but when he recalled how Max killed a demon, stronger than him right when they arrived, his heart trembled.
"Let's go." He ordered his teammates and rushed in the other direction.
Just a few seconds after everyone vacated the scene,
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A group of three demons arrived in the area.
They were two males and one female, the female being the leader.
She glanced around, noticing the wreaked ground, which was the result of Max and the demoness' fight, and then noticed the piles of ashes which made her frown.
She then took out her communication crystal, and said in it, "Leader, there was a fight not too long ago and several of our people were killed. It seems some outsiders have arrived here. Please order everyone to be alert and immediately contact others if they encounter them and not take any risk."
There was no response from the other side, causing a displeased look to cover her face. 'That bitch… she will regret it if she doesn't heed my advice.' She thought, a cold glint flashing in her eyes.
Noticing her expression, one of the other two demons smiled wryly, "Miss Yin, don't be angry. Leader must be… busy. How about I contact others and warn them?"
Humph!
The demoness, Miss Yin, snorted, "Will any listen to you? Let alone you, they won't even listen to me."
Hearing this, the demon could only shake his head, feeling helpless. The leader of this group was the son of their sludge demon tribe's patriarch and Miss Yin was the daughter of one of the grand elders
—a king ranked demon. Unfortunately, neither liked each other.
"Let's go. Let him do whatever he wants. I completed my due duty," Miss Yin said, disappearing from the place.
Max and the company arrived at the town's periphery, entered an abandoned house.
Placing Emily on the ground, he flopped down, panting. He was feeling stabbing pain all over his body and it wasn't because of the sonic attack he suffered or anything else but because he had forcibly used his bloodline's aura when he still couldn't control his new bloodline.
He wanted to complain to the system that it didn't tell him he would be feeling this, but considering it had helped him save his and everyone else's life, he kept quiet.
To take his mind off the pain, he opened his notification panel to see how many points he got after killing a mid-stage four-star, seven three-star demons, ranging between mid-stage to peak of the realm.
[Ding! You've killed a four-star demon. 2x bonus applied. +70,000 Kill Points.]
[Ding! You've killed a three-star demon. 2x bonus applied. +6800 Kill Points.]
[Ding! You've killed a three-star demon. 2x bonus applied. +10,000 Kill Points.]
[Ding! You've killed a three-star demon. 2x bonus applied…]
[Ding! You've killed…]
"Nice!" He couldn't help but speak out loud in excitement when he saw the notifications. In total, he had gained 130,000 Kill points. He then took out the two four-star crystals he got from the four-star demon duo and sold them in the system's shop for 110.
[Kill Points: 0 --> 130,000]
[Shop Points: 100 --> 210]
'System, use the kill points and increase my intelligence stat to 200 and add the rest of the points into my mana pool.' He ordered the system.
As soon as he commanded, his kill points went to 0 while he felt his senses improving by a significant margin and his almost dried up mana core roared back to life.
[Intelligence: 179 --> 200]
[Mana: 11,000/(57,800 --> 68,700)]
[Kill Points: 0]
'Only 31,300 Mana units before I'll be eligible to breakthrough to the four-star realm.' He clenched his fist. The stronger he became, the more points he can earn and ensure his and his loved ones' safety in these chaotic times.
He took out a pile of mana mid-grade mana stones and started recovering his mana. However, his speed of mana absorption was not up to par.
Phew!
Exhaling, he counted the time from the moment he got the 2x bonus.
'I still have over 1.5 hours. I can't waste it all in recovering my mana. It seems I need to buy a better mana absorption and refinement technique.' He thought. Until now, he had been using the mana absorption technique from the core forming manual Esther gave him when he reached the two-star realm. He didn't change it for a better one before because he didn't really need it since he could not use the mana in the environment, or in the mana stone for that matter, to increase his cultivation. And when he needed to recover the mana, his current technique was sufficient. 'System, show me a suitable mana absorption technique.' He said to the system.
Immediately, a list of techniques appeared in front of him.
[These are the five techniques the host can buy with his current shop points. Please choose whichever host likes.]
'Thanks.' He said and glanced at the techniques. All of them looked multiple times better than his current one. The cheapest cost 50 SPs and could increase his mana absorption and refinement by three times, and the most expensive and best out of five cost 200 SPs and was almost ten times more efficient than his current one.
So, without hesitation, he bought the latter. Thanks to his high intelligence stat, which worked wonders when he needed to comprehend any technique and the fact that this technique wasn't nearly as much complication as the [Pheonix Wings], he took less than 10 minutes to gain initial mastery over it, which, according to its description, would increase his mana absorption speed by 4-5 times. Not bothering to master it more thoroughly for now, he started recovering his mana.
Whoosh!
The moment he activated the technique, his body seemed to have become a black hole, greedily sucking the energy out of the mid-grade mana stones one by one, turning them into dust.
Rey was gobsmacked when he witnessed this. Just a while ago, he saw him wasting around several minutes to absorb a single mana stone, but now; it was taking him less than a minute to do that.
Half an hour later…
Phew!
Max exhaled a deep breath and opened his eyes, looking satisfied.
[Mana: 68,700/68,700]
Right then, Swoosh!
A wave of mana burst of Emily before gradually vanishing into her body. She then opened her eyes, a slight smile appearing on her lips.
Curious, Max accessed her status and immediately realized why she was happy. "Congratulations on your breakthrough!" He smiled, congratulating her. She was now a high-stage three-star mage.
